Actor's ex-fiancée pleads not guilty to lying to police in double killing

SANTA ANA – The former fiancée of a man indicted in the killings of two Orange Coast College students and dismemberment of one of them pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of being an accessory to the crime.

Wozniak faces the death penalty if convicted in the May 2010 murders of Samuel Herr, 26, and Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, 23.

Several times in May and June 2010, Buffett is accused of "propagating the false story that Wozniak told police about Herr having problems with his family, with the intent to assist Wozniak avoid and escape from arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment for the felony," a news release from the Orange County District Attorney's Office said.

Wozniak was engaged to Buffett before he was arrested in connection with the killings and is charged with two felony counts of special-circumstances murder, to which he has pleaded not guilty.

Buffett's relatives say she and they were stunned by her arrest late last month, about 2½ years after the crimes occurred. Wozniak was arrested May 26, 2010, at his bachelor party in Huntington Beach.

Wozniak and Buffett were scheduled to wed a couple of days later. The two had known each other about two years and starred together in the production of "Nine" at Hunger Artists Theatre Company in Fullerton, Buffett's brother Noah Buffett said.

Acting was a hobby for his sister, who was attending community college with a goal of transferring to a four-year school, he said. She also played parts as a princess at Disneyland in Anaheim and at Medieval Times in Buena Park, Noah Buffett said.

Costa Mesa detectives interviewed his sister several times, and she cooperated fully, said Buffett, who was himself arrested initially after the killings on suspicion of being an accessory after the fact but was later released and never charged.

Buffett's relatives attended a hearing Monday, during which she entered a not guilty plea through her attorney before Superior Court Judge Walter Schwarm. Buffett is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, pending a bail review hearing Friday.

"I know she's not in any way involved in this," Noah Buffett said. "She didn't lie to any cops. I know her words have been taken out of context. She wasn't trying to throw anybody's investigation off. Dan (Wozniak) hasn't implicated her; other than the cops' suspicions, nothing she has done implicates her."

Herr's father and mother also were in court, along with other relatives.

"If she's part of this, she should face the full brunt of the judicial system," Steve Herr said.

If convicted of three felony counts of accessory after the fact, Buffett faces a maximum sentence of three years and eight months in state prison.

Wozniak confessed to detectives that he killed Herr and Kibuishi as part of a scheme to access Herr's bank account, according to testimony recorded in transcripts of an Orange County grand jury session earlier this year.

"It was 100 percent about the money," Wozniak told detectives.

Authorities allege that on May 21, 2010, Wozniak lured Herr, his neighbor, to a theater facility at the Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base, where prosecutors believe he shot Herr twice in the head before stealing his ATM card, wallet and cellphone.

Later that evening, prosecutors allege, Wozniak used Herr's cellphone to send a text message to Kibuishi, a friend of Herr's, to lure her to his apartment. Authorities believe Wozniak shot Kibuishi twice in the head, and then removed some of her clothing to make it appear she had been sexually assaulted.

Prosecutors say Wozniak later returned to the Los Alamitos theater, where he is accused of cutting off Herr's head, left arm and right hand before dispersing the body parts in the theater and at El Dorado Park in Long Beach.

Noah Buffett said in a telephone interview before Monday's hearing that before the killings, he and Wozniak worked for free for a startup company until investment funding came in. If Wozniak had run out of money, he did not know about it, Noah Buffett said.

Rachel Buffett's arrest did not come as a surprise to Herr's father.

"She was about to be marry this guy, and she didn't know the dire financial state he was in?" Herr said.

Two other people, Wozniak's brother, Timothy Allen Wozniak and Lisa Gayle Golledge, both 38, have also each been charged with a count each of being an accessory after the fact. Both have pleaded not guilty, court records show.

Prosecutors accuse them of going to Wozniak's home after the killings and removing a bag that contained evidence, including a saw that is believed to have been used in the decapitation and dismemberment, and later of lying to police.